The present invention is directed to a bio-amplifier card provided for each fish in a system, including a Bio-Amp.RTM. (manufactured by Biological Monitoring, Inc. (BMI)). The bio-amplifier card, upon detecting a bio-electrical field (generated by neuromuscular activity such as breathing) of fish, amplifies the signal for use in, for example, a water quality monitoring system. The fish are used as biological sensors. The system in which the bio-amplifier card is employed is described in U.S. Ser. No. 07/611,653, filed Nov. 13, 1990, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,140,855 to David Gruber, incorporated by reference herein.
The ventilatory behavior of fish has been used as an indicator of a toxic environment. Prior art systems are large, cumbersome and not particularly accurate. A large amount of data is required to be taken and analyzed over a period of time. Therefore, an alarm indicating that the water is contaminated is not instantaneous; rather, an extended period of time is necessary to make a contamination determination. It is necessary to develop a system which is efficient, accurate and capable of making a contamination determination in as short a time as possible.